Jocelwyn

Wow, you guys are awesome at brainstorming! I guess I have trouble thinking outside the box when panicked :/ I'm loving the scouts idea--thank you for the info on how to get in contact with the best groups. Looks like I've got a lot of phone calls in my future to see what I can rustle up in the shortest time possible. Thanks again, so much!

Hm, that does sound confusing. I'm also taking a Nursing Research course right now, so I feel your pain! Have you tried looking at your textbook's definition of "concept" in relation to qualitative studies? One thing that comes to my mind is that "concepts" could be the same things as "phenomena", which are basically all incredibly vague terms that can mean just about anything. Personally, I think "concepts" in this case could refer to any of the major themes or phenomena in the study. Like you said, "collaborative decision making" would be a big one. I think you're on the right track : )

Hello fellow nurses/nursing students! I'm in the second semester of a distance learning, RN-to-BSN program. One of my courses, "Career Pathway Development" is basically a "nurse as educator" type course and requires a major project involving the development and administration of an educational project. I am a new grad RN, with zero work experience, and I'm a full time student pursuing my BSN, so I have no current workplace either. The project has been progressing in steps, with the first one being to identify "two problems in your workplace (or community if no workplace) and describe the gap between what is expected, and the existing conditions." My workplace being distressingly non-existent, I agonized over it for about a week and then whacked out two (probably lame) "issues" within my community--something along these lines" 1. The "Passive Patient Mentality" (my teaching project could focus on becoming a more effective healthcare consumer--ways to keep up with doctors' visit notes or immunization status, how to effectively prepare for healthcare visits, or how to find reputable information online about their health, illnesses, or medications) 2. Lack of Awareness about Lyme Disease (it's basically rampant in my area, but a lot of people could stand to learn about applying Deet, not walking in tall grass, tick checks, early signs and symptoms, etc.) So here's where the problem comes in. As feedback, my professor said they were good topics, but to "be sure you have a consistent group to assess, teach and evaluate throughout the entire semester" and informed the class as a whole that our target population would "probably not be a patient population" since they would be too hard to have as a consistent group (i.e. find and follow the same people for the next few months). The rest of the class is happily chugging along with great plans to educate other staff at their workplaces about preventing HAI's, etc. (obviously what the project was geared towards all along), seemingly oblivious to the fact that I'm caught in a catch 22 due to my lack of connections/workplace. This week I'm supposed to assess my non-existent population using questionnaires that I'm supposed to develop, and then write a paper about my findings, how I performed the survey/research/assessment, and how I'm going to use the findings to develop and tailor my teaching plan for this population. And this paper is due in... 9 days. I emailed my teacher about these concerns, but she doesn't have a great track record of getting back to me, or of being helpful. To be honest, I'm feeling totally overwhelmed. Any advice/help would be a life-saver! Do you have ideas how I might salvage my topics and find a stable patient population whom I can not only "assess" ASAP but also find together at some community venue down the road where I can present an educational project of some type? And then be able to evaluate those same people afterwards? Or do you think I need a totally different plan altogether? What would you do? Thanks so much for your help!!

Good questions! Fluids and Electrolytes seem to be a doosey for everybody--glad it wasn't just me! The first question is most likely testing (indirectly) your ability to determine what foods contain different electrolytes. Since dairy products are the number 1 classic for calcium content, and we know that hypercalcemia means you want to decrease your already-too-high blood calcium level, the best option would be to restrict dairy and milk products. Increasing fluids would be good to do, but I would say it's not the best answer to this question. Remember, most answers to nursing test questions are correct--it's a matter of figuring out which is *most* correct and the highest priority. #2: I can tell you for certain that you will see a variation of this question on the NCLEX. "Ototoxicity" should come to mind about 0.001 seconds after you hear the word "Lasix", and a huge teaching point for patients is that they should call their doctor immediately if they experience ringing of the ears. You are absolutely correct that taking daily weights and reporting changes is also important while on Lasix, but the key here is the time period the question gave. The threshold at which you want to start worrying is losing or gaining more than 2 pounds in a *day*, so losing or gaining three pounds in a week would definitely not be as important as reporting possible ototoxicity. #3: this one is a little tricky, but I know for sure that you do not want to put a patient with FVE in Trendelenburg (feet higher than head). A major concern with fluid volume excess is impaired breathing from extra fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), and having the feet higher than the chest will only serve to shunt more extra fluid towards the lungs. I can see you being hesitant to pick the "give diuretic" option since that requires an order and it wasn't specified in the question that you had one, but in reality this is probably the correct answer (or at least, out of the two that you gave). You should ask your teacher if you should assume with these types of questions that you had/could get the order and should just pick the best answer accordingly. In reality, most units you'll be working on will have standing orders that would cover situations like this. It would also amaze me if any patient had a diagnosis of FVE and no PRN prescription for diuretics. The best course of action would be to quickly perform a more thorough assessment (what's the I+O? B/P? HR? Do the labs indicate FVE? Are there any other possible causes of the confusion?), elevate the head of the patient's bed, and call the doctor to request diuretics. Best of luck in your course! Remember: prioritize, choose the *most* correct option, don't read into the question, go with what you know, and never ever change your answers! Hope that helps :)